Bitmaps for next generation contact center

ABSTRACT

A queueless contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, achieve true one-to-one matching. Solutions are also provided for managing data structures utilized by the queueless contact center. Furthermore, mechanisms for generating traditional queue-based performance views and metrics for the queueless contact center are proposed to help facilitate a smooth transition from traditional queue-based contact centers to the next generation contact centers described herein.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/324,216, filed Apr. 14, 2010, the entire disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is generally directed toward communications andmore specifically toward contact centers.

BACKGROUND

The traditional notion in contact centers was that queues were requiredto achieve efficiencies in work distribution while also minimizing agentidle time. Unfortunately, the utilization of queues almost alwaysresults in suboptimal routing. That is an agent is often not assigned tothe work item which she is most qualified to handle and vice versa.

For example, in skill-based queues a work item queue is paired with acorresponding resource queue. When work items are received at theAutomated Contact Distributor (ACD), the attributes of the work item areanalyzed and then the work item is placed in a specific queue based onits attributes. Similarly, when a contact center resource (often anagent) comes on line they are assigned to one or more resource queuesthat also have a corresponding skillset associated therewith. Sinceskill queues are provided in work item/resource pairs, the nextavailable agent in a resource queue is assigned the next work itemwaiting in the work item queue. While there have been some solutions tomake this queue and assignment structure more flexible, every solutionhas always been hampered by the notion of utilizing a number of queues.

In order to improve efficiency, a contact center will typically segmentcontacts into many different queues. This segmentation may be byservice, language, media type, region, and/or customer type. This canquickly result in many thousands of queues. Each of these queues needsto be configured, managed, monitored and reported on. Also, as agentsgain new skills and improve their expertise levels, there is a need toconstantly reassign agents to queues. Furthermore, when an agent gainsnew skills there is a significant cost in administration and operationalcosts of the contact center. Complexity increases because agents aretypically in multiple queues simultaneously, and the new skills of anagent need to be updated in all relevant queues. Updating these changesin agent skills is a time-consuming and expensive task, which usuallyhas to be performed with some amount of manual oversight. All of thesefactors add significant complexity and cost to the running of thecenter.

Despite this, contact centers still see the need to improve efficiencyand to segment work even further. This could be by revenue, age group,gender, accent or a host of other possibilities. However, contactcenters are constrained from realizing these additional efficiency gainsbecause of the sheer impracticality of managing tens of thousands ofqueues. The current method of improving efficiency by segmentation hasreached its limits and a new mechanism is required in order to attainimproved levels of efficiency.

SUMMARY

It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that theembodiments presented herein were contemplated. This disclosure proposesa solution to the traditional queue-based contact centers.

One aspect of the present disclosure proposes a queueless contactcenter. One-to-one optimal matching of work items and agents can beachieved by discarding the notion that queues are required in a contactcenter. Instead of pre-organizing work items and resources into specificbuckets or queues, the present disclosure proposes a system whereultra-fast mapping can be performed. Such ultra-fast mapping may berealized by first performing a qualification determination (i.e.,determine which objects are qualified to be assigned to the newlyavailable object), an eligibility determination (i.e., determine whichof the qualified objects are eligible to be assigned to the newlyavailable object), and a suitability determination (i.e., determinewhich of the eligible objects are most suitable for being assigned tothe newly available object).

One general algorithm which may be utilized to achieve the above-notedgoals in a contact center environment includes:

(1) Create 3 “pools” (unordered collections), one for all resources in acontact center, one for all work items in the contact center, one forall qualifier sets in the contact center.

(2) For each pool, create a qualification bit map. 1 bit for each entryis provided in the qualification bitmap. This bitmap can be used tospeed up complex scans of pools, especially during the qualificationdetermination and even during the eligibility determination.

When a work item is added to the contact center, the following can beperformed:

(1) receive a work item;

(2) determine attributes of the work item that will be used forqualification, for example language=English, intent=Sales. The specificcombination of required attributes is defined as a “qualifier set” andthe number of attributes within a qualifier set can vary from oneattribute to many attributes. Moreover, attributes may be regarded as acharacteristic or multiple characteristics of an object, such as a pieceof work or a resource in a contact center.

(3) place an entry for the qualifier set into a qualifier set pool if itis not there, where the “Qualifier set Pool” contains all qualifier setsused so far in the contact center. The work item will then save theindex of this qualifier set in the qualifier set pool.

(4) The work item is placed in the “Work Item Pool”.

When a resource is added, the following can be performed:

(1) determine attributes of the resource that are used for qualification(these will be the same attributes used for the work items above). Thismay be performed for all the attribute combinations for the resourcesince resources have multiple “qualifier sets”.

(2) place an entry for the qualifier set into a qualifier set pool if itis not there and get its index. The resource will then save the index tothat qualifier set. It should be noted that if the resource qualifierset index is the same as the work item qualifier set, then the work itemis qualified If a qualified work item is also currently available toreceive the newly received resource, then that work item is consideredeligible.

(3) One or more entries for a resource are placed in the “ResourcePool”.

When a resource becomes available (work item surplus state), thefollowing can be performed:

(1) compute the qualifier set qualification bitmap, setting a 1 for eachqualifier set the resource is qualified for.

(2) scan the work item pool for works with the qualifier set index is a1 in the qualifier set qualification bitmap.

(3) on a “qualified” work item, determine eligibility, and then scoreall eligible work items based on the current work selection strategy forthis resource. Exemplary types of work selection strategies which may beemployed include, without limitation, optimize agent utilization,minimize cost, simultaneously minimize cost and minimize work item waittime, and so forth.

(4) if this eligible work item scores “better” than all previouslyanalyzed eligible work items, then it's the new best work item.

(5) after ALL the eligible work items are “considered”, the best isselected as the optimal work item.

(6) assign the optimal work item to the resource.

(7) route the optimal work item to the resource.

When a work item becomes available (resource surplus state), thefollowing can be performed:

(1) execute the “qualification” policies to determine what attributeswill be used for qualification. For example, after some period of time,language requested may be ignored, so the resource considerations wouldbe expanded.

(2) compute qualifier set bitmap for the available work item using itsqualifications.

(3) scan the resource pool for resource entries where the qualifier setindex is a 1 in the qualifier set qualification bitmap to determinequalified resources.

(4) on a qualified resource, determine eligibility, and then score theresource, if eligible, using the work item's resource selectionstrategy. If the eligible resource scores better than all previouslyanalyzed resources, then it's the new best resource.

(5) after scanning ALL resources, the best is selected as the optimalresource.

(6) assign the work to the optimal resource.

(7) route the work item to the optimal resource.

The above description is but one possible logical implementation. Thebitmaps on the work and resource pool were not used. Those maps can beused to provide improved performance by “compressing” the eligibilityrules into a single bit when the resource or work changes state. Forexample, if a resource is logged-in and idle, then it may be consideredeligible and its bit is set to reflect the same. The bit table ischecked during the qualification and eligibility determination stepsbefore scoring to “filter” out those resources that should not bescored. The same mechanism can be applied to work items to minimizeprocessing time.

There are a number of variations that are within the scope of thepresent disclosure. For instance, certain attributes of a work item orresource may be time or state dependant. For example, as an agentcontinues to develop proficiencies in handling certain work item-types,that agent's attributes may alter accordingly. Likewise, as a work itemcontinues to wait for a resource, that work item's attributes may alteraccordingly, thereby making it eligible and better suited for assignmentto a resource than other work items. Note that while the attributes ofthese elements may change, they never have to be moved into or out of aqueue. Rather, their attributes may change over time which may result ina different mapping as time progresses.

In some embodiments, such dynamic attributes may be analyzed during theeligibility determination rather than during the qualificationdetermination. This ensures that only the minimal number of objects areconsidered during the eligibility determination as this may require someprocessing to compute the eligibility bitmap, which likely varies overtime more frequently than bits represented in the qualification bitmapwhich do not tend to vary as frequently. As can be appreciated, however,bits used for qualification and eligibility may be maintained in asingle bitmap if desired, but only certain bits within that map may beanalyzed during the qualification or eligibility determinations.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is to add a second layer ofrules to a resource's attribute table which may cause one of the bitsfor one of their attributes to change if that resource has handled theirdaily quota of a certain work item-type. Other rules for flipping bitvalues can be utilized for work items, resources, and/or qualifier sets.Flipping a bit in the resource's bitmap would thereby make the resourceineligible to handle their best work item-type for the rest of the day(or some other predefined period), even though that resource is aqualified resource.

Further details related to the structure of the bitmap are alsodescribed herein. The exemplary bitmaps described herein enable amassive performance scale. In particular, utilization of the bitmaps asdescribed herein has been proven to work for 100,000 agents all workingoff of a single server that is looking at over 1,000,000 work items.Without the specific bitmaps contemplated it would be difficult toachieve a queueless contact center on a large scale. However, aqueueless contact center (achieving a one-to-one mapping) could likelybe implemented on a smaller scale without the bitmaps being proposedherein.

Among the other advantages which can be achieved by the presentdisclosure include: no queues or link lists; no pre-ordering of workitems or resources; consideration of every item in the contact centerfor assignment whenever an opposite element becomes available;one-to-one matching; and no constraints on matching rules.

It is another aspect of the present disclosure provides data structureswhich make it possible to achieve high-performance one-to-one matchingin a large scale contact center or other environments where a largenumber of objects are considered during matching determinations.

The basic data structure is a “pool” and an associated bitmap. Each bitin the bitmap corresponds to a single entry in the pool. There can bethree structures defined, one for all resources in the contact center,one for all work items in the contact center, and one for all qualifiersets in the contact center (where a qualifier set is a combination ofqualification attributes, like language=english, intent=sales,customerType=gold). Work assignment determinations can be accomplishedby scanning these tables and evaluating different kinds of rules.Qualifier sets are used instead of the traditional skillsets of theprior art. Prior art contact centers were concerned with skillsets whichdefine skills of a resource or work item and are used to assignresources and work items to queues. In other words, the utilization ofskillsets implies the need for queues. Embodiments of the presentdisclosure utilize qualifier sets since queues are no longer needed tomake assignment decisions and every available work item or resource isconsidered for every assignment decision.

The first kind of rules are qualification rules. Qualification rulesselect what can be “considered” in a match by looking at the attributes.

The second kind of rules are eligibility rules. Eligibility rulesdetermine which among qualified objects are currently allowed to beassigned to another object. For instance, normally a resource must belogged in to be considered eligible to receive a work item. Thus, moredynamic attributes (e.g., time dependent attributes, contact centerstate-based attributes, object state-based attributes, etc.) may beconsidered in the eligibility rules whereas more static attributes areconsidered in the qualification rules.

The third kind of rules are scoring rules. Scoring determines whichconsideration (potential and eligible match) is better than othereligible matches. For example, a longer time waiting (forFirst-in-First-out (FIFO) behavior) would score better and thus thatconsideration would become the “best” match. After scanning all thepossible considerations, the best is then assigned to a resource. Notethat in a “brute force” method, only need two pools are needed, workitem and resources. When a work item is added to the system, a scan ismade of all resources, when a resource becomes ready for work, a scan ismade of all work items.

The size of the pools may limit the number of considerations that can bemade, practical limits on Central Processing Unit (CPU) time, allow theabove method to work for only small pools. In order to achieve anenterprise-scale implementation, sizes (100K and larger), embodiments ofthe present disclosure incorporate the second element of the datastructures, the qualification bit maps. Each pool has a qualificationbitmap. The bitmap stores compressed rule evaluations, allowing anincrease of nearly two orders of magnitude in pool size and the numberof considerations. Adding the third structure, the Qualifier set Pool,provides a common mapping ground for resources looking for work and worklooking for resources and provides a level of indirection that isindependent of the size of the Resource/Work item pools since the totalnumber of qualifier sets is much less than the pool sizes for Resourcesand Work. Because of this, an “amplification” in performance by theratio of the table sizes can be realized. For example, if a system has256K work items to consider, and 32K qualifier sets possible, then an 8×performance improvement can be achieved by using the qualifier set poolin the match. This is further improved by using cache-conscioustechniques that allow the 32K qualifier sets to be compressed to 4Kbytes of bits by applying the qualification rules in a separate step.For example, this means that instead of executing 5 qualification rulesper each of the considerations (250K*5=2.5M rules evaluations), onlyexecute (32K*5=162K rules). If the number of considerations goes to 1M,embodiments of the present disclosure still do only 162 k rules, thebigger the number of objects considered during matching, the moreefficient this solution is.

This rule time is constant and can be pipelined for even betterperformance. The small bitmap also increases performance by beingcontinuous in memory and it may be evaluated, for example, at up to 64bits or more at a time, increasing the processing time another order ofmagnitude by eliminating CPU cache stalls that can cost delay process asmuch as 100 floating point operations. In some embodiments, a GPU orFPGA may be utilized, thereby further decreasing processing time.

The use of bitmaps for qualifications exploits the fact that for anymatch, most considerations are not valid. This means the bitmap ismostly zero's and this fact can be leveraged to “scan” it fast.

In some embodiments, an Enterprise Qualifier Set Pool is specificallyorganized to represent different qualification attribute combinations.Each combination of attributes in the pool represents a possibleattribute combination that a work item might have and that would berelevant to making a work assignment decision. In other words, not everysingle attribute for a work item may be represented in the attributetable. Examples of such important attributes include, withoutlimitation, language, region (physical location), customer type (e.g.,platinum level, gold level, silver level, or unassigned), contact type(e.g., realtime call, realtime chat, email, fax, RSS feed, blog posting,etc.), whether the contact is related to a specific intent, product orservice (e.g., for Comcast Broadband Services whether the contact isrelated to digital voice services, cable television services, orbroadband Internet services), and so on. Each possible combination ofattributes are represented in the attribute table and have acorresponding combination ID defined as the “qualifier set ID”. Thequalifier set ID corresponds to an entry within the qualifier set Pool(specifically the index) where the specific attribute combination islocated. For each work item and each qualifier set ID a corresponding‘1’ or ‘0’ is calculated, where ‘1’ represents the fact that thecombination evaluates true for the work item (e.g., the work item hasprocessing needs consistent with the evaluated combination) and ‘0’represents the fact that the combination evaluates negative for the workitem (e.g., the work item does not have the processing needs consistentwith the evaluated combination). It is likely that most qualifier setIDs for a given work item have a corresponding ‘0’ as most work itemshave relatively specific processing needs and attributes. The evaluationvalues (‘1s’ and ‘0s’) along with the corresponding qualifier set ID arestored in a compressed qualifier set bitmap.

Similar to the work item pool, and the pool of resources also have theirown qualification bitmap. The resource pool and qualification bitmap areconstructed similarly to the work item pool and qualification bitmap.The qualifier set IDs of the resource may match the qualifier set IDs ofthe work item such that if an evaluation is performed for a specificattribute combination and the evaluation results in a value of ‘1’ forboth the work item and the resource, then that resource is qualified toprocess the work item.

The work and resource bitmaps can be modified when the associated object(resource or work) changes state. This happens infrequently, and isusually the result of time events, more data being added or the “state”is modified. The associated qualification bit is computed by rules thatexecute on the change and eliminate the execution of those rules duringthe scan. This allows for a tremendous reduction in rule evaluation andfurther reduces the number of rules that execute “per consideration”.These bitmaps are evaluated during the scan, to “skip” over largenumbers of entries in the pool being considered.

The work assignment determination process can be performed in athree-step fashion. First, the ‘1s’ and ‘0s’ of the bitmaps (forresources or work items) are checked to determine which resources arequalified to receive a work item or vice versa. Advantageously, thebitmap is primarily constituted of ‘0s’ which means that most resourceswill be eliminated as qualified, thereby reducing the number ofresources that have to be analyzed in the following steps.

Second, those objects which are determined to be qualified may then befurther examined for eligibility. During the eligibility determination,more dynamic attributes of the qualified object may be analyzed. Inparticular, eligibility bitmaps (or bit values of eligibility attributeswithin the qualification bitmap) may be computed and then examined todetermine if any of the qualified objects are not currently eligible tobe assigned to the newly available object. Ineligible objects arediscarded and will not be further analyzed in the third step. In thisstep, the qualifier set IDs may be compared to identify eligibleresources for a work item or vice versa.

Finally, a scoring operation is employed to determine if the currentconsideration is the best. After completion of the scan andconsideration of all eligible objects, the “best” object is assigned.Each step reduces the number of considerations in subsequent steps andcan be pipelined for even better efficiency.

Further details of this entire scanning process as it relates to the useof bitmaps is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/545,413to Flockhart and Steiner, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

Although the pools and bitmaps are depicted and described as flattables, the present disclosure is not so limited. Rather, hierarchicaltables, pivot tables, or any other data structure or set of datastructures can be used without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a description ofprocessing schemes which can be used in a queueless contact center toobtain high performance efficiencies.

First, the proposed queueless contact center involves performing bitmapoperations on the work item bitmap, the resource bitmap and thequalifier set bitmap. One purpose of the bitmap operations is to storethe pre-computed result of one or more qualification rules. In resourcesurplus, a work item uses the qualifier set bitmap to select qualifiedresources and uses the resource bitmap to select the ones that arereally eligible. In a work surplus situation, the resource uses thequalifier set bitmap to select qualified work. Optionally, it can usethe work item bitmap to test the work to see if it can be processed(eligible to process). For simple work assignment utilization of thework item bitmap may not be necessary.

Advantageously, the bitmaps have mostly ‘0’ values (e.g., most bitmapswill have 95% or more ‘0’ values meaning that less than 5% of allresources are qualified for a particular work item, or vice versa). Thisis due to the fact that most work items only satisfy a singlecombination of qualification or eligibility requirements and mostresources have specialized skills. That is, most resources do not havethe ability or permission to handle every single work item that enters acontact center. Because only bit comparisons are performed, eligiblework item/resource matches can be identified very quickly, even whenconsidering all work items in a contact center for a particular resourceand vice versa. Each bit in the bitmaps represents multiple ruleevaluations.

This means that the organization of the bitmaps and the computation ofthe bits contained within the bitmaps is important. Because a bitcomparison is performed, the types of attributes considered ingenerating the bits which populate the bitmaps also becomes important.Business rules and performance goals can be considered when determiningwhich attributes will be considered in the attribute combination.Generally speaking, every possible attribute will not be included in theattribute combinations which are used to make work assignment decisions.Because the present disclosure proposes qualification mapping as analternative to skill-based queues, the attributes which historicallycorresponded to a specific queue or skill within a contact center may beincluded as an attribute in the attribute combination, although this isnot a requirement. Other business rules can also be included as metricsin calculating a bitmap or they may be used as an active filter whichmodifies a certain bit value (e.g., from ‘1’ to ‘0’) in the bitmap ifcertain criteria are met (or not met).

Another scheme which is proposed is a fast skip or bulk evaluationscheme. Performance efficiencies can be achieved during the bitcomparison by looking one or multiple bitmaps in chunks rather than on abit-by-bit basis. As noted above, most values in the bitmaps will have avalue of ‘0’. The bulk evaluation scheme allows the comparison engine toreview multiple bits (e.g., 64 bits or more) simultaneously to determineif that chunk of bits has a ‘1’ value therein. If the chunk of bits doesnot have a ‘1’ value therein, then the comparison engine can quicklymove on to the next chunk without performing any further analysis. Ofcourse, if the chunk is identified as having a ‘1’ value then abit-by-bit comparison or evaluation may be required for that chunk.There are a number of ways to perform a fast skip as described above.For example, Boolean expressions, such as an OR function, can be used torepresent the value of a chunk. If the Boolean expression for a chunkresults in a value of ‘0’, then each bit within the entire chunk can besaid to have a ‘0’ without any further analysis.

Yet another aspect of the present disclosure provides mechanisms forpopulating and maintaining the data structures within a queuelesscontact center. In particular, because the organization of the bitmapsof the present disclosure is so important, the population and managementthereof also become important. However, because so many pools and poolentries are utilized, population and management by hand is difficult ifnot impossible.

The present disclosure provides a Contact Center Algorithm Language(CCAL) that can populate, organize, and manage the pools and bitmapsused in a queueless contact center. CCAL is a domain-specific languagethat is capable of writing the rules which populate the pools with workitem, resource or qualifier set attributes. Moreover, CCAL organizes theattributes within the pools by determining the order in which attributesare included in the pool and the manner in which bitmaps are calculated.In particular, CCAL can take a business rule (e.g., maximize profit,minimize idle agents, minimize wait time, etc.) and determine whichattributes contribute to the business rule. Often times multiplebusiness rules are considered by CCAL and an attribute may contribute toboth of the business rules in some fashion. CCAL considers the pertinentgoals/business rules defined by an administrator of the contact centerand then identifies which attributes will be included in the work itemand resource attribute pools in determining an attribute combination.Some attributes that are inputs to a business rule or contact centergoal may be excluded from the attribute pool if it is determined thatother more important attributes are needed for consideration. CCAL alsoidentifies the order in which the attributes will appear in the pool andplaces the necessary attributes in the optimal location of the pool. Theoutput of CCAL is an optimized Work Assignment Engine—it generates thecode and the program. The program may be provided as a computingapplication and may be in a traditional computing language, machinecode, byte code, GPU-specific code, or object code (for CPU or virtualmachine). It should be appreciated that the present disclosure is notlimited to any specific type of output.

As business goals or contact center states change, CCAL may be enabledto re-consider which attributes are included in the various contactcenter pools and bitmaps. If a new attribute is to be added, CCAL mayeither identify an attribute to remove from the pools and/or determinean optimal new order of attributes within the pools. This isaccomplished by first looking at all the mathematical expressions usedin all the rule sets define a given contact-centers operation. The datadependencies are then analyzed, first by references then by order ofexecution. Once the detailed execution of the rules are understood, aset of optimization rules are executed to transform the rule sets intodata structures, procedures, tasks, and events. This optimization isstored in a implementation neutral storage Abstract Syntax Tree called‘Z’. Z can be translated into Java, C++, C# or directly into machinecode.

One issue with implementing a queueless contact center as proposedherein is that most customers have mechanisms in place for monitoringand managing the operation of a traditional queue-based contact center.Another aspect of the present disclosure provides mechanisms whichgenerate views and metrics for a queueless contact center that aresimilar to views and metrics for traditional queue-based contactcenters. This allows the customer (i.e., contact center administrator)to have a certain comfort level in purchasing the new contact centerequipment, plus the customer does not have to significantly modify theircurrent management structure to accommodate the new contact centerarchitecture. The traditional complexity of multi-queue work requiressignificant calculations when preparing performance reports. Suchcomplexities are eliminated by the present disclosure which eliminatesthe notion and need of a queue-based architecture. Thus, preparation ofviews and metrics of the contact center is also greatly simplified byeliminating the queue-based architecture of the prior art.

In some embodiments, the views and metrics are generated as follows:each entity in a pool (i.e., a qualifier set for the qualifier set pool,a work item for the work item pool, and a resource for the resourcepool) has a set of metrics associated therewith. For example, a workitem may have metrics related to how long it has been waiting forservice as well as its attributes defining the processing needs of thework item. While only some of those attributes may be included in thework item's “qualifier set” (i.e., specific set of routing qualificationattributes), more or less of the attributes may be used to compute aview for that work item. A view is a combination or composite of thework item's attributes. The same process can be performed whencalculating a view or metric for a qualifier set or resource.

The metrics and view for the work item can be calculated as often as isdesired (i.e., continuously or periodically). Additionally, metrics andviews can be calculated for a subset of entities in a pool (e.g., allresources having a certain common attribute or common set of attributes)or metrics and views can be calculated for the entire pool, if desired.Furthermore, CCAL is a domain-specific language that provides a simplemechanism for describing rules, metrics, views, and how to compute andcombine the same with business-based strategies.

The metrics and views generated for an entity or a set of entities maybe generated in such a manner as to emulate traditional metric and viewsgenerated in a skill-based contact center. For example, an EstimatedWait Time (EWT) may be generated for a qualifier set. As anotherexample, average processing time for all the work items in a qualifierset may also be calculated. These examples are not intended to belimiting. Any type of view or metric traditionally generated in aqueue-based contact center may be generated in the proposed queuelesscontact center. This model can be extended further to organize thequalifier sets, resources or work items into groups and the metrics canbe further processed into new “rolled-up” views. These views may be usedby reporting, or by the Work Assignment Engine itself For example,health measurements may be computed on a group of entities and when athreshold is reached, different algorithms may be invoked to correct thesituation. Exemplary outputs of views and metrics which may be providedfor the queueless contact center are further described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/517,646, filed Sep. 7, 2006, the entire contentsof which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Although embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed inconnection with a communication application environment, theobject-matching algorithms proposed herein may be utilized to increaseobject matching in many other environments. For example, embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be utilized in financial portfoliooptimization problems (e.g., matching available financial resources withfinancial investment opportunities), route optimization problems (e.g.,matching possible routes between current and desired locations oroptimizing delivery routes for parcel carriers), matching projects andbids, or any other application where there is limited supply or limiteddemand for some resource or service.

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material”.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage that participates in providing instructions to aprocessor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, includingbut not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmissionmedia. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic oroptical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as mainmemory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, afloppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any othermagnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state mediumlike a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable mediais configured as a database, it is to be understood that the databasemay be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical,object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognizedequivalents and successor media, in which the software implementationsof the present disclosure are stored.

The terms “determine”, “calculate”, and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosureis described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat individual aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting exemplary pools and bitmaps that areutilized in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting exemplary work item data structuresthat can be used in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting exemplary resource data structuresthat can be used in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary contact centerarchitecture creation method in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary method of treating workitems which are added to a contact center in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary method of treatingresources which are added to a contact center in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary method of handling awork item surplus state in a contact center in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary method of handling aresource surplus state in a contact center in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary bitmap managementmethod in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary contact center rulemanagement method in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary contact centerperformance view and metric generation method in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intendedto limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims.Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the artwith an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It beingunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a distributed communicationsystem 100 in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The communication system 100 comprises a communicationnetwork 104 connecting one or more communication devices 108 to a workassignment mechanism 116, which may be owned and operated by anenterprise administering a contact center in which a plurality ofresources 112 are distributed to handle incoming work items from thecustomer communication devices 108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. Thecommunication network 104 may include wired and/or wirelesscommunication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes and Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) network, a cellular network, and any other type of packet-switchedor circuit-switched network known in the art. In addition, it can beappreciated that the communication network 104 need not be limited toany one network type, and instead may be comprised of a number ofdifferent networks and/or network types. As one example, embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be utilized to increase the efficiency of agrid-based contact center. Examples of a grid-based contact center aremore fully described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/469,523 toSteiner, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein byreference. Moreover, the communication network 104 may comprise a numberof different communication media such as coaxial cable, coppercable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas for transmitting/receivingwireless messages, and combinations thereof.

The communication devices 108 may correspond to customer communicationdevices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device 108 toinitiate a work item, which is generally a request for a processingresource 112. Exemplary work items include, but are not limited to, acontact directed toward and received at a contact center, a web pagerequest directed toward and received at a server farm (e.g., collectionof servers), a media request, an application request (e.g., a requestfor application resources location on a remote application server, suchas a SIP application server), and the like. The work item may be in theform of a message or collection of messages transmitted over thecommunication network 104. For example, the work item may be transmittedas a telephone call, a packet or collection of packets (e.g., IP packetstransmitted over an IP network), an email message, an Instant Message,an SMS message, a fax, and combinations thereof. In some embodiments,the communication may not necessarily be directed at the work assignmentmechanism 116, but rather may be on some other server in thecommunication network 104 where it is harvested by the work assignmentmechanism 116 which generates a work item for the harvestedcommunication. An example of such a harvested communication includes asocial media communication that is harvested by the work assignmentmechanism 116 from a social media network or server. Exemplaryarchitectures for harvesting social media communications and generatingwork items based thereon are described in U.S. patent application Ser.Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942, and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 1010, Feb.17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010, respectively, each of which are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of thecommunication device 108 and the format of the communication. Inparticular, work items are logical representations within a contactcenter of work to be performed in connection with servicing acommunication received at the contact center (and more specifically thework assignment mechanism 116). The communication may be received andmaintained at the work assignment mechanism 116, a switch or serverconnected to the work assignment mechanism 116, or the like until aresource 112 is assigned to the work item representing thatcommunication at which point the work assignment mechanism 116 passesthe work item to a routing engine 140 to connect the communicationdevice 108 which initiated the communication with the assigned resource112.

Although the routing engine 140 is depicted as being separate from thework assignment mechanism 116, the routing engine 140 may beincorporated into the work assignment mechanism 116 or its functionalitymay be executed by the work assignment engine 120.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication devices 108 may comprise any type of knowncommunication equipment or collection of communication equipment.Examples of a suitable communication device 108 include, but are notlimited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof.In general each communication device 108 may be adapted to supportvideo, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communicationdevices 108 as well as the processing resources 112. The type of mediumused by the communication device 108 to communicate with othercommunication devices 108 or processing resources 112 may depend uponthe communication applications available on the communication device108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources 112via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism 116 androuting engine 140. The resources 112 can either be completely automatedresources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, processors,servers, or the like), human resources utilizing communication devices(e.g., human agents utilizing a computer, telephone, laptop, etc.), orany other resource known to be used in contact centers.

As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism 116 and resources 112may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center format.In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 may beadministered by multiple enterprises, each of which has their owndedicated resources 112 connected to the work assignment mechanism 116.

In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 comprises a workassignment engine 120 which enables the work assignment mechanism 116 tomake intelligent routing decisions for work items. The work assignmentengine 120 may include one or more modules to facilitate thefunctionality of the work assignment engine 120. Such exemplary modulesinclude, without limitation, a parser 128, a CCAL module 132, and aBoolean module 136.

More specifically, the work assignment engine 120 can determine which ofthe plurality of processing resources 112 is qualified and/or eligibleto receive the work item and further determine which of the plurality ofprocessing resources 112 is best suited to handle the processing needsof the work item. In situations of work item surplus, the workassignment engine 120 can also make the opposite determination (i.e.,determine optimal assignment of a work item resource to a resource). Insome embodiments, the work assignment engine 120 is configured toachieve true one-to-one matching by utilizing bitmaps/tables 124 andother data structures described herein.

Although the bitmaps/tables 124 are depicted as being included in thework assignment mechanism 116, one skilled in the art will appreciatethat the bitmaps/tables 124 can be maintained in a separate database orserver that is made accessible to the work assignment mechanism 116.

Furthermore, the work assignment engine 120 and its various componentsmay reside in the work assignment mechanism 116 or in a number ofdifferent servers or processing devices. In some embodiments,cloud-based computing architectures can be employed whereby one or morecomponents of the work assignment mechanism 116 are made available in acloud or network such that they can be shared resources among aplurality of different users.

The parser 128 may be configured to assist the work assignment engine120 in translating the instructions prepared by the CCAL module 132.Specifically, the parser 128 may translate outputs of the CCAL module132, which correspond to the processes and procedures to be performed bythe work assignment engine 120. Thus, the parser's 128 primary functionmay be to convert outputs of the CCAL module 132 into structures orinstructions which are executable by the work assignment engine 120. Insome embodiments, the parser 128 may be replaced with a CCAL compiler.

Outputs of the CCAL module 132, once in the proper format, enable thework assignment engine 120 to make qualification and eligibilitydeterminations as well as optimal routing decisions. In particular, theparser 128 may be utilized to perform bitmap comparisons and other bitanalysis in determining whether a work item can be and should beassigned to a resource 112 or vice versa.

The Boolean module 136 is provided to assist the work assignment engine120 in scanning large groups of items. Specifically, the Boolean module136 may enable the work assignment engine 120 during qualification oreligibility determinations to analyze a plurality of work items orresources 112 (or more specifically bit values associated with suchitems) by computing a Boolean value for a plurality of bits. In someembodiments, the Boolean module 136 is configured to compute an OR orAND function on a plurality of bits and provide the computed value tothe work assignment engine 120 which determines if any bits within theplurality of bits require an independent analysis. In some embodiments,the OR function may be used during qualification determinations (becauseone false bit value can result in the need to analyze all resources orwork items within a group of resources or work items) whereas the ANDfunction may be utilized during eligibility determinations (because alltrue bits may be required for a resource or work item to be consideredeligible). In some embodiments, rather than utilizing the Boolean module136 a non-zero scanner may be utilized to analyze the bit maps duringqualification or eligibility determinations.

The CCAL module 132 is provided to enable the work assignment engine 120to receive rules and goals of a contact center and format such rulesinto attributes and expressions which can be used to facilitate thequeueless contact center architecture proposed herein. In someembodiments, the CCAL module 132 is configured to translate a set ofrules and/or goals from one computing language into a second computinglanguage based on its analysis of the inputs, outputs, and variables inthe original set of rules and/or goals. The output of the CCAL module132 may still require further translation by the parser 128.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work assignment mechanism 116 utilizes the bitmaps/tables 124 todetermine which work item should be assigned to which resource 112 andvice versa. In other words, the bitmaps/tables 124 are used by the workassignment engine 120 to make routing decisions.

FIG. 2 depicts exemplary data structures 200 which may be incorporatedin or used to generate the bitmaps/tables 124 used by the workassignment engine 120. The exemplary data structures 200 include one ormore pools of related items. In some embodiments, three pools of itemsare provided, including an enterprise work pool 204, an enterpriseresource pool 212, and an enterprise qualifier set pool 220. The poolsare generally an unordered collection of like items existing within thecontact center. Thus, the enterprise work pool 204 comprises a dataentry or data instance for each work item within the contact center.

In some embodiments, the population of the work pool 204 may be limitedto work items waiting for service by a resource 112, but such alimitation does not necessarily need to be imposed. Rather, the workpool 2004 may contain data instances for all work items in the contactcenter regardless of whether such work items are currently assigned andbeing serviced by a resource 112 or not. The differentiation betweenwhether a work item is being serviced (i.e., is assigned to a resource112) may simply be accounted for by altering a bit value in that workitem's data instance. Alteration of such a bit value may result in thework item being disqualified for further assignment to another resource112 unless and until that particular bit value is changed back to avalue representing the fact that the work item is not assigned to aresource 112, thereby making that resource 112 eligible to receiveanother work item.

Similar to the work pool 204, the resource pool 212 comprises a dataentry or data instance for each resource 112 within the contact center.Thus, resources 112 may be accounted for in the resource pool 212 evenif the resource 112 is ineligible due to its unavailability because itis assigned to a work item or because a human agent is not logged-in.The ineligibility of a resource 112 may be reflected in one or more bitvalues.

The qualifier set pool 220 comprises a data entry or data instance foreach qualifier set within the contact center. In some embodiments, thequalifier sets within the contact center are determined based upon theattributes or attribute combinations of the work items in the work pool204. Qualifier sets generally represent a specific combination ofattributes for a work item. In particular, qualifier sets can representthe processing criteria for a work item and the specific combination ofthose criteria. Each qualifier set may have a corresponding qualifierset identified “qualifier set ID” which is used for mapping purposes. Asan example, one work item may have attributes of language=French andintent=Service and this combination of attributes may be assigned aqualifier set ID of “12” whereas an attribute combination oflanguage=English and intent=Sales has a qualifier set ID of “13.” Thequalifier set IDs and the corresponding attribute combinations for allqualifier sets in the contact center may be stored as data structures ordata instances in the qualifier set pool 220.

In some embodiments, one, some, or all of the pools may have acorresponding bitmap. Thus, a contact center may have at any instance oftime a work bitmap 208, a resource bitmap 216, and a qualifier setbitmap 224. In particular, these bitmaps may correspond to qualificationbitmaps which have one bit for each entry. Thus, each work item in thework pool 204 would have a corresponding bit in the work bitmap 208,each resource 112 in the resource pool 212 would have a correspondingbit in the resource bitmap 216, and each qualifier set in the qualifierset pool 220 may have a corresponding bit in the qualifier set bitmap224.

In some embodiments, the bitmaps are utilized to speed up complex scansof the pools and help the work assignment engine 120 make an optimalwork item/resource assignment decision based on the current state ofeach pool. Accordingly, the values in the bitmaps 208, 216, 224 may berecalculated each time the state of a pool changes (e.g., when a workitem surplus is detected, when a resource surplus is detected, and/orwhen rules for administering the contact center have changed).

With reference now to FIG. 3, additional details of the data structuresand algorithms which may be used in calculating the work bitmap 208 willbe discussed in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.Although the organization of these data structures and data structuresfor the qualifier set and resources will be described in terms ofcolumns, rows, and entries, one skilled in the art will appreciate thatother forms of data manipulation and organization may be utilizedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Moreover,while only a certain number of entries (e.g., a-M, a-N, a-X, and a-Y)are depicted and described herein, one skilled in the art willappreciate that any number of entries may be utilized to populate thedata structures described herein without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

As noted above, the work pool 204 may correspond to or contain a datastructure such as a work item attribute table 304 that contains a datainstance 312 a-M for each work item attribute combination in the workpool 204. In some embodiments, one work item may only have one attributecombination and, therefore, may be represented by a single data instance312. However, in some embodiments, a work item may have multipleattribute combinations, in which case multiple data instances 312 areprovided in the work item attribute table 304 to represent the workitem. Stated another way, each data instance 312 a-M corresponds to aspecific attribute combination of a work item and may representattribute combinations of multiple work items if multiple work itemsshare a common attribute combination.

The attribute combination data instances 312 a-M are correlated to acombination ID, which may also be utilized as a qualifier set ID forthat attribute combination. Additionally, the attribute combination datainstances 312 a-M each have one or more attributes 316 a-N which definethe attributes of the data instance 312. Exemplary attributes which maybe included in the work item attribute table 304 and thus represent awork item's attribute combination include, without limitation, languagepreferences or requirements, location/region from where the work itemoriginated, customer type, media type, intent (e.g., service, sales,trouble shooting, billing, etc.), or any other attribute which wastraditionally used in determining which queue a work item should beplaced in. Advantageously, embodiments of the present disclosure do notutilize queues but rather represent attributes used for routing purposesin work item attribute combinations 312 a-M.

The work item attribute table 304 can be converted into a work itembitmap 320, which may be similar or identical to the work bitmap 208 orit may be a less condensed version thereof. The work item bitmap 320comprises the same attribute combinations 312 a-M and theircorresponding combination IDs 308 as the work item attribute table 304.However, rather than having attribute types 316 a-N in the columns ofthe table, the work item bitmap 320 comprises work items entries 324a-X. As noted above, each work item in the contact center has at leastone attribute combination (i.e., qualifier set requirement) and maypossibly have more than one attribute combination. The work item bitmap320 correlates work items to their corresponding attributecombination(s) by indicating a true value, which may be inverted by anXOR operation (e.g., a ‘1’ may correspond to a true value where ‘0’ isused to represent a false value) at the intersection of a particularwork item's entry (e.g., the first work items entry 324 a) with thatwork item's corresponding attribute combination (e.g., the firstattribution combination 312 a). Accordingly, if a work item has aparticular attribute combination, the combination ID corresponding tothat attribute combination is correlated to the work item. Thiscorrelation establishes a fixed but easily searchable relationshipbetween the work item and its attribute combination(s).

The work item bitmap 320 may be further compressed into a reformattedwork item bitmap 328 which may be similar or identical to the workbitmap 208. In some embodiments, the reformatted work item bitmap 328comprises two columns, a first column 332 corresponding to a work itemidentifier (i.e., a unique identifier which is assigned to a work itemwhen it enters the contact center) and a second column 336 correspondingthe combination IDs 308 which were determined to be true (e.g., have avalue of ‘1’ in the work item bitmap 320 where a work item entry 324intersected with a combination ID 308). A greater or lesser number ofcolumns may be used without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. Regardless of the organization of the data structure, thereformatted work item bitmap 328 correlates a work item to its attributecombination (i.e., processing requirements) by associating the work itemidentifier 332 with the combination ID 308. This reformatted work itembitmap 328 allows the work assignment engine 120 to quickly scan allwork items in the work pool 204 and determine the processingrequirements thereof, thereby enabling quick assignment decisions.

The work item bitmap 320 and/or reformatted work item bitmap 328 mayalso be utilized to generate the qualifier set bitmap 224 which maymaintain data related to the attribute combinations 312 a-N and theircorresponding combination IDs 308. Moreover, utilization of thereformatted bitmap 328 conserves memory space in the work assignmentmechanism 116, which has traditionally been over-utilized in queue-basedcontact centers.

With reference now to FIG. 4, additional details of the data structuresand algorithms which may be used in calculating the resource bitmap 216will be discussed in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The resource pool 212 may correspond to or contain a datastructure such as a resource attribute table 404 that contains a datainstance 412 a-M for each resource attribute combination in the resourcepool 212. In some embodiments, one resource may only have one attributecombination and, therefore, may be represented by a single data instance412. However, in some embodiments, a resource may have multipleattribute combinations, in which case multiple data instances 412 areprovided in the resource attribute table 404 to represent the resource.Stated another way, each data instance 412 a-M corresponds to a specificattribute combination of a resource (or multiple resources) and mayrepresent attribute combinations of multiple resources if multipleresources share a common attribute combination.

The attribute combination data instances 412 a-M are correlated to acombination ID 408, which may also be utilized for mapping the attributecombinations of the resources to attribute combinations of the workitems via a qualifier set ID in the qualifier set bitmap 224. If anattribute is relatively slow moving (i.e., does not vary frequently overtime), then a combination analysis may be utilized. This istraditionally a better option during qualification determinations, whichinvolve the analysis of slow-moving attributes as opposed to eligibilitydeterminations which involve the analysis of faster-moving attributes.

Additionally, the attribute combination data instances 412 a-M each haveone or more attributes 416 a-N which define the attributes of the datainstance 412. Exemplary attributes which may be included in the resourceattribute table 404 and thus represent a resource's attributecombination include, without limitation, language capabilities,location/region from where the resource is situated, processingcapabilities of the human agent, processing and/or memory capabilitiesof the resource 112, media type, business-unit (e.g., service, sales,trouble shooting, billing, etc.), or any other attribute which wastraditionally used in determining which queue a resource should beplaced in. Advantageously, embodiments of the present disclosure do notutilize queues but rather represent attributes of resources used forrouting purposes in resource attribute combinations 412 a-M.

The resource attribute table 404 can be converted into a resource bitmap420, which may be similar or identical to the resource bitmap 216 or itmay be a less condensed version thereof. The resource bitmap 420comprises the same attribute combinations 412 a-M and theircorresponding combination IDs 408 as the resource attribute table 404.However, rather than having attribute types 416 a-N in the columns ofthe table, the resource bitmap 420 comprises resource entries 424 a-Y.As noted above, each resource in the contact center has at least oneattribute combination (i.e., qualifier set) and may possibly have morethan one attribute combination. The resource bitmap 420 correlatesresources to their corresponding attribute combination(s) by indicatinga true value at the intersection of a particular resource's entry (e.g.,the first resource's entry 424 a) with that resource's correspondingattribute combination (e.g., the Mth attribution combination 412M).Accordingly, if a resource has a particular attribute combination, thecombination ID corresponding to that attribute combination is correlatedto the resource. This correlation establishes a fixed but easilysearchable relationship between the resource and its attributecombination(s).

The resource bitmap 420 may be further compressed into a reformattedresource bitmap 428 which may be similar or identical to the resourcebitmap 216. In some embodiments, the reformatted resource bitmap 428comprises two or more columns, a first column 432 corresponding to aresource identifier (i.e., a unique identifier which is assigned to aresource when it enters the contact center) and a second column 436corresponding the combination IDs 408 which were determined to be “true”(e.g., have a value of ‘1’ in the resource bitmap 420 where a resourceentry 424 intersected with a combination ID 408). These first twocolumns may be utilized by the work assignment engine 120 to determinewhether a resource 112 is eligible to be assigned to a work item andvice versa (e.g., for utilization in qualification determinations).

A third column 440 may also be provided to identify the suitability of aparticular resource 112 for each of its attribute combinations.Accordingly, if a resource 112 only has a single attribute combination,then the suitability column 440 for that resource entry 424 may onlyhave a single suitability value. Alternatively, if a resource 112 hasmultiple attribute combinations, then the suitability column 440 forthat resource entry 424 may have multiple suitability values, one foreach attribute combination.

Accordingly, the reformatted resource bitmap 428 correlates a resourceto its attribute combination (i.e., processing requirements) byassociating the resource identifier 432 with the combination ID 408 andmay also provide information regarding the resources 112 suitability forits attribute combination(s). This reformatted resource bitmap 428allows the work assignment engine 120 to quickly scan all resources 112in the resource pool 212 and determine the processing capabilitiesand/or suitabilities thereof, thereby enabling quick work item routingdecisions.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an exemplary method of creating a queuelesscontact center architecture will be described in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. The method is initiated when itis determined that the contact center architecture is to be created(step 504). The method continues with the creation of a resource pool212 for all resources in the contact center (step 508), a work pool 204for all work items in the contact center (step 512), and, optionally, aqualifier set pool 220 for all qualifier sets in the contact center(step 516). The decision to create the qualifier set pool 220 may dependupon the number of resources 112, work items, or excepted resources 112and work items to be included in the contact center. If the number ofresources 112 and/or work items is going to be relatively low (e.g.,less than 10,000 total items), then a qualifier set pool 220 may notnecessarily be required and mapping may be performed directly betweenthe work pool 204 and resource pool 212. However, the qualifier set pool220 is particularly useful to facilitate work item/resource assignmentdecisions in large contact centers.

After the pools of items have been created, the method continues withthe creation of bitmaps for each pool (step 520). The bitmaps condensethe items within the pool and distil the information related to eachitem down to the necessary attributes which are considered pertinent towork item/resource assignment decisions. Once created, the bitmaps canbe used by the work assignment engine 120 to scan the various pools inmaking work item routing decisions as will be discussed in furtherdetail below (step 524).

Referring now to FIG. 6, an exemplary method of adding work items to acontact center will be described in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure. The method is initiated when itis determined that a new work item has been added to the contact center(step 604). This determination may be made upon detecting that a newcommunication has been received at the contact center and morespecifically at the work assignment mechanism 116. In some embodiments,the work item is generated by the contact center device which initiallyreceives the communication (e.g., a server, switch, or the like) whichmaintains the communication but generates a logical representation ofthe communication in the form of a work item which is transmitted to thework assignment mechanism 116. Upon creation of the work item a workitem identifier may be assigned to the work item to help uniquelyidentify the work item within the contact center during its existence inthe contact center.

After the work item has been generated, the work item is received at thework assignment engine 120 (step 608) which determines the attributes ofthe work item (step 612). In some embodiments, the work assignmentengine 120 itself may be configured to determine the processingrequirements of the work item and further determine which of thoseprocessing requirements and/or preferences are utilized by the contactcenter for qualification purposes (i.e., which attributes are accountedfor in the work item attribute table 304). Alternatively, or inaddition, the device that initially received the communication and/orgenerated the work item may determine the necessary attributes for thework item. Alternatively, or in addition, the work assignment engine 120may initially assign the work item when it is first received to aresource 112 which is capable of determining attributes for the workitem. As one example, the work item may be assigned to an IVR which canquery the customer for processing requirements. As another example, thework item may be assigned to a server which can reference a CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) database in the contact center todetermine if the customer who initiated the communication has alreadybeen stored in the contact center. Combinations of the above examplesmay also be utilized to determine attributes of work items forqualification purposes.

Once the appropriate attributes, and particularly the attributecombination(s) 312, representing the work item's processing requirementshave been determined, the method continues by placing an entry for theattribute combination 312 into the qualifier set pool 220 (step 616), ifthat attribute combination 312 is not already in the qualifier set pool220, and assigning that particular attribute combination 312 acombination ID 308 (step 620). The combination ID 308 of the newattribute combination 312 is stored in the qualifier set pool 220 and/orqualifier set bitmap 224 along with the properties of the attributecombination 312 to maintain a logical relationship between the attributecombination and its identifier. Before, during, or after steps 616and/or 620, the method also places a work item entry 324 for the workitem into the work pool 204 (step 624). In particular, this step mayinvolve generating the work item entry 308, 324 in a work item bitmap320 and determining which of the attribute combinations in the contactcenter the work item evaluates as true. This determination may bemaintained in the work item bitmap 320 as long as the work item remainsin the contact center or until the rules regarding work item/resourceassignment have changed.

Referring now to FIG. 7, an exemplary method of adding resources to acontact center will be described in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure. The method begins when it isdetermined that a new resource has been added to the contact center(step 704). This determination may be made when a resource is added tothe contact center by an administrator (e.g., a phone is plugged into aport, a computer is connected to a network interface, a human agent isregistered into an appropriate agent database, etc.). This determinationmay additionally or alternatively be made when an already registeredhuman agent logs into or otherwise actively registers with the contactcenter (e.g., by establishing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectionwith the network to which the work assignment mechanism 116 isconnected.

After the resource has been added to the contact center, the attributesof the resource 112 for qualification purposes are determined (step708). Alternatively, or in addition, this step may be performed whenthere is an administrative change, a change in time resulting in anattribute value change, a change in agent state, or any other changeresulting from the occurrence of an event. In particular, the attributecombination(s) 412 for the newly added resource 112 is determined. Insome embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 is configured todetermine the attribute combination(s) 412 for the resource.Alternatively, this information may be administratively provisioned inan enterprise database and retrieved by the work assignment mechanism116. In addition to determining the attributes for routingqualifications, all other attribute combinations (which may not bedirectly applicable to routing qualifications) are determined for theresource 112 (step 712).

For each of the new determined attribute combinations of that resource112, an entry is placed into the qualifier set pool and a correspondingcombination ID is retrieved (step 716). This combination ID (which mayalso be referred to as a qualifier set index when referring to theresource 112) is stored in the data entry 424 for that resource (step720) and the associated combination ID(s) 436 for the resource arestored in one or both of the resource pool 212, resource bitmap 216,420, and reformatted resource bitmap 428 along with a unique resource ID432 assigned to the resource 112 and with any suitability information,if such information is known (step 724).

With reference now to FIG. 8, an exemplary method of handling a workitem surplus state in a contact center will be described in accordancewith at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. The methodbegins when it is determined that a resource 112 has become available(step 804). This determination may occur when a resource 112 or an agentusing a resource has logged into the contact center or immediately aftera resource 112 has finished servicing a work item.

Advantageously, the work assignment engine 120 is capable of consideringevery single work item in the contact center, or at least every workitem in the work pool 204, for assignment to the newly availableresource 112. This enables true one-to-one matching and furtherfacilitates optimal assignment of work items to a resource 112 based onthe capabilities or attributes of the resource 112.

The method continues with the work assignment engine 120 computing aqualifier set qualification bitmap (i.e., one or more of resource bitmap216, 420 and reformatted resource bitmap 428) for each qualifier setthat the resource 112 is qualified for (step 808). In some embodiments,a resource 112 may only have one attribute combination as its qualifierset qualification. In some embodiments, a resource 112 may have multipleattribution combinations for which it is qualified.

Based on the bitmap which was computed for the resource 112, the methodcontinues by scanning the work pool 204, or more particularly a bitmapcomputed for the work pool 204 (e.g., work bitmap 208, work item bitmap320, and/or reformatted resource bitmap 328), for work items having anattribute combination that matches the attribute combination of theresource 112 (step 812). This analysis may be performed by analyzing onework item data entry at a time or by analyzing a group of work item dataentries to see if any work items in the group of work items is qualifiedto be assigned to the resource 112. In some embodiments, parallelprocessing may be utilized to further increase the speed with whichbitmaps are scanned. Specifically, data entries can be grouped accordingto processing mechanisms rather than other logical groupings, therebycreating highly parallelized groups. This allows a large group of bitsto be evaluated simultaneously by a GPU, for example. If a GPU is used,then the Boolean module 136 may be provided as a separate piece ofhardware from the work assignment engine 120.

If during the group analysis it is determined that at least one workitem is qualified for assignment to the resource 112, then a workitem-by-work item analysis of every work item in the group may beperformed to identify the work item(s) which are qualified for theresource 112. If, however, it is determined that the entire group ofwork items is not qualified for assignment to the resource 112, then nowork item in that group requires an individual analysis and the nextgroup of work items can be analyzed.

In some embodiments, the combination IDs 408 for which the resource 112is qualified to handle will be compared to combination IDs 308 in thework item bitmap. If the combination ID 408 for the resource matches acombination ID 308 in the work item bitmap, the work item having thecorresponding combination ID 308 will be considered as a qualified workitem for the resource 112 (step 816).

The method continues with the work assignment engine 120 analyzing thequalified work items for eligibility (step 818). During this step,values for fast moving attributes may be computed and inserted into theappropriate bitmap location before the bitmaps are analyzed. Attributeswhich may be computed and analyzed during the eligibility step include,without limitation, work item availability (based on whether the workitem is already assigned to another resource 112), actual work item waittime, contact center state (based on whether the contact center is onschedule, behind schedule, projected to get behind schedule etc.), andthe like. If a work item is determined to be currently ineligible forassignment to the resource 112, then the ineligible work item is removedfrom further consideration.

The method then continues by scoring work items for the resource 112based on the suitability of the resource 112 as well as based on anyother work selection strategies that are known to the work assignmentengine 120 (step 820). For example, if multiple work items are equallysuitable for assignment to a resource 112, then the work item which hasbeen waiting longer for assignment to a resource may be assigned ahigher score.

Based on the relative scores of the work items, the work assignmentengine 120 selects the optimal work item(s) from among the qualified andeligible work items (step 824) and assigns the optimal work item to theresource 112 (step 828). The assignment step may include transferringthe communication associated with the work item to the resource 112 withthe routing engine 140 (e.g., connecting a customer communication device108 with a resource 112 for a realtime communication session, forwardingan email communication to the resource 112, forwarding a text message tothe resource 112, transferring customer data to the resource,combinations thereof, and the like).

Referring now to FIG. 9, an exemplary method of handling a resourcesurplus state in a contact center will be described in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. The method begins when it isdetermined that a work item has become available (step 904). Thisdetermination may occur when a new work item is received in the contactcenter or after a work item has been partially serviced by one resourceand still requires further processing.

The method continues with the work assignment engine 120 executingqualification policies to determine attributes which will be used inassessing resource qualification for the work item (step 908). Inparticular, a first set of attributes may be used in assessingqualification for a first predetermined amount of time after theresource surplus has been detected but those qualification attributesmay change to a second set of attributes after the first predeterminedamount of time has lapsed. For example, language attributes mayinitially be considered in the qualification attributes, but after apredetermined amount of time has lapsed, the language attributes may beexcluded from the qualification attributes so that resourceconsiderations can be expanded.

Once the qualification attributes have been selected, the methodcontinues with the work assignment engine 120 computing a qualifier setbitmap for the work item using the determined qualification attributes(step 912). In this step, the work assignment engine 120 determineswhich attribute combination 312 or combinations will be used inassessing the assignment possibilities for the work item.

After the attribute combination 312 for use in resource qualificationassessment has been determined, the work assignment engine 120 retrievesthe associated combination ID 308 from the qualifier set bitmap 224 andscans the resources of the contact center for qualified resources 112(step 916). In this step, the work assignment engine 120 is able toconsider every single resource 112 in the contact center without regardfor a queue structure or any other artificial limitation. This enablesthe work assignment engine 120 to achieve optimal assignment decisionsand true one-to-one work item assignment. In some embodiments, thescanning step includes assessing one or more resource bitmaps 216, 420or the reformatted resource bitmap 428.

Additionally, and similar to the qualification analysis in the work itemsurplus state, the work assignment engine 120 may analyze each resource112 individually for qualification purposes or the work assignmentengine 120 may, with the help of the Boolean module 136, analyze theresources 112 in groups to determine if any resource 112 within thegroup requires further analysis. If a group is determined to have noqualified resources 112, then the work assignment engine 120 maycontinue by analyzing the next group instead of having to analyze everysingle resource 112 individually. This is particularly useful to speedup the qualification analysis because most resources 112 will likely notbe qualified to handle a particular work item and can, therefore, bequickly eliminated before further analysis is performed.

The resources 112 which are determined to be qualified to process thework item (e.g., by virtue of having the selected attribute combinationID evaluate as true in the resource bitmap 420 and/or reformattedresource bitmap 428) are then further analyzed for eligibility (step918). The eligibility determination involves the work assignment engine120 analyzing the qualified resources for eligibility. During this step,values for fast moving attributes may be computed and inserted into theappropriate bitmap location before the bitmaps are analyzed. Attributeswhich may be computed and analyzed during the eligibility step include,without limitation, resource availability (based on whether the resourceis already assigned to another work item or whether the resource islogged-in), resource idle time, contact center state (based on whetherthe contact center is on schedule, behind schedule, projected to getbehind schedule etc.), and the like. If a resource is determined to becurrently ineligible for assignment to the work item, then theineligible resource is removed from further consideration.

The method continues with the work assignment engine 120 scoring thequalified and eligible resources for the work item based on the currentresource selection strategy and/or the suitability of the resource 112for handling that particular type of attribute combination (step 920).Based on the relative scores of the resources 112, an optimal resourceis determined (step 924) and the work item is assigned to the optimalresource 112 (step 928), thereby achieving true one-to-one matching inthe contact center. In some embodiments, the work item is also routed tothe optimal resource 112.

With reference now to FIG. 10, an exemplary method of managing bitmapsin a contact center will be described in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present invention. One purpose of the bitmapoperations discussed herein is to store the pre-computed results of oneor more qualification rules. In resource surplus, a work item uses thequalifier set bitmap to select qualified resources and uses the resourcebitmap to select the ones that are really eligible. In a work surplussituation, the resource uses the qualifier set bitmap to selectqualified work. Optionally, it can use the work item bitmap to test thework to see if it can be processed (eligible to process). For simplework assignment utilization of the work item bitmap may not benecessary.

It is for this purpose that bitmaps having mostly false values (e.g.,‘0’ values) are used in making work item/resource assignment decisions.Generally speaking, business rules and performance goals can beconsidered when determining which attributes will be and will not beincluded in an attribute combination. The attributes considered withinan attribute combination may also vary over time and based on a contactcenter's state.

The method begins when a bitmap change event is detected by the workassignment engine 120 (step 1004). Exemplary types of bitmap changeevents include, without limitation, determining that a new business ruleor strategy (which is a collection of rules) should be implemented inmaking work item/resource assignment decisions, determining that newperformance goals are desired for the contact center (e.g., minimizework item wait time instead of maximize resource 112 utilization),determining that a predetermined amount of time has passed since thestate of a contact center has changed, determining that a predeterminedamount of time has passed since an assignment of a work item to aresource has been made, determining that new resources and/or work itemshave been added to the contact center, or any other event which mayrequire consideration of a different attribute that is not currentlyincluded in the qualification attribute combination.

Once such an event is detected, the method continues with the workassignment engine 120 re-computing qualification bitmaps for each pool204, 212, 220 (step 1008). In the step, the work assignment engine 120utilizes the new attribute combination which was determined based on thestate change event to calculate the new bitmaps that can be used inmaking work item/resource assignment decisions. The method then waitsuntil a new state change event is detected before the qualificationbitmaps are re-computed again (step 1012).

Referring now to FIG. 11, an exemplary method of managing contact centerrules will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments ofthe present invention. The method is initiated when rules foradministering the contact center are received in a first language (step1104). These rules may contain Boolean expressions, thresholds, policyobjectives and goals, optimization goals, and other forms of rules whichare traditionally used to manage contact centers. In some embodiments,the rules may be received at the work assignment mechanism 116 whichincludes a Contact Center Algorithm Language (CCAL) module that canpopulate, organize, and manage the pools 204, 212, 220 and bitmaps usedin a queueless contact center. In some embodiments, the CCAL module 132may be maintained in a different server that is in communication withthe work assignment mechanism 116. CCAL is a domain-specific languageand the CCAL module 132 may be configured to write the rules whichpopulate the pools 204, 212, 220 with work items, resources, andqualifier sets.

After the rules have been received at the CCAL module 132, the methodcontinues with the CCAL module 132 determining attributes whichcontribute to the rules by analyzing the input and output structure ofthe rules, variables contributing to the rules, thresholds related tothe rules, and the like (step 1108). Thereafter, the particularattribute combination that will be used to implement the rules isdetermined by the CCAL module 132 (step 1112). Additionally, the CCALmodule 132 can identify an order of importance for the attributes in theattribute combination (step 1116). The determined order is used toidentify the location for each attribute in the associated attributetables 304, 404.

Thereafter, the CCAL module 132 transforms the rules into a secondlanguage by generating code and the program which are responsible forimplementing the rules and generating the bitmaps as conditions of thecontact center change (step 1120).

With reference now to FIG. 12, an exemplary method of generatingperformance views and metrics for a queueless contact center will bedescribed in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. One unique aspect of implementing a queueless contact centeris that many existing queue-based contact centers have management andadministrative infrastructure already in place. This means that intransferring from a queue-based contact center to a queueless contactcenter will involve the need to minimize disruption due to the transfer.One aspect of the present disclosure provides the ability to generateperformance views and metrics for a queueless contact center thatrepresent performance views and metrics generated in a traditionalqueue-based contact center. In some embodiments, the CCAL module 132 isresponsible for defining view and analysis metrics to determine optimalstructures to support the desired views. These determinations may beincorporated into the output of the CCAL module 132 which controls theoperation of the work assignment engine 120.

The method begins when it is determined that views and metrics of thecontact center are to be generated (step 1204). Generation of views andmetrics may be performed continuously, periodically, or sporadically(e.g., on an as-needed basis or as-requested basis). The mechanism whichgenerates the views and metrics of the contact center performance maycomprise the work assignment engine 120 or some other performanceanalysis module contained in the work assignment mechanism 116. In someembodiments, however, a performance analysis module may be contained ina different server that is external to the work assignment mechanism116.

The method continues by determining attributes which will be consideredin the process of generating views and metrics (step 1208). As can beappreciated, different attributes of work items and/or resources will beconsidered depending upon the type of view and metric that is currentlybeing generated. For example, if views and metrics related to EstimatedWait Time (EWT) for work items having a particular processingrequirement (e.g., billing questions) are desired, then the attributesrelated to wait time until a work item was assigned and attributesrelated to intent may be the two types of attributes which are analyzedwithin the work pool 204. As another example, if views and metricsrelated to agent utilization for a specific qualifier set are desired,then attributes related to the qualifier set of interest and timeengaged with a work item may be some of the attributes analyzed withinthe resource pool 212.

Accordingly, after the attributes for consideration have beendetermined, the method continues by analyzing the determined attributesfrom the appropriate population of items in the contact center (step1212). In analyzing the contact center items, all pools of items may beanalyzed or just the pools having the items of interest may be analyzed.

Results of the analysis may then be formatted into a queue-based viewand metric report (step 1216). As one example, this formatting mayinclude designating a particular set of resources 112 as being agentswithin a particular “skill-based queue” and then displaying the viewsand/or metrics determined for that set of resources 112 as if the agentswere actually in an agent queue, even though they are not.

After the results have been properly formatted, the method continues bytransmitting and/or presenting the views and metrics to one or moreinterested parties (step 1220). This step may include automaticallysending an electronic version of the performance report to one or moreusers designated as interested parties. This step may also includerendering a display of the report via a user interface of acommunication device and/or printing a physical report on paper. Othermethods of transmitting and presenting views and metrics may also beutilized without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methodswere described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that inalternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different orderthan that described. It should also be appreciated that the methodsdescribed above may be performed by hardware components or may beembodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may beused to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purposeprocessor (GPU or CPU) or logic circuits programmed with theinstructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executableinstructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, suchas CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs,EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other typesof machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by acombination of hardware and software.

Specific details were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown inblock diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessarydetail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process whichis depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium.A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment mayrepresent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, asubroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination ofinstructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment maybe coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passingand/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described indetail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may beotherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claimsare intended to be construed to include such variations, except aslimited by the prior art.

1. A method, comprising: determining that an element in a contact centerhas become available for assignment; determining a search criteriaassociated with processing requirements or capabilities of the element;scanning a bitmap for the search criteria to identify counter-elementsin the contact center that are qualified to be assigned to the element;and based on the scanning, determining a set of counter-elements thatare qualified to be assigned to the element.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the element comprises a work item and wherein thecounter-element comprises a resource.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinthe bitmap is a resource bitmap that is associated with a resource pooland each bit in the resource bitmap corresponds to a single resource inthe resource pool.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein a value of each bitin the resource bitmap is assigned either a 1 or 0 depending uponwhether the resource is qualified to be assigned to the work item. 5.The method of claim 3, wherein every resource in the contact center isrepresented in the resource pool and resource bitmap.
 6. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the resource bitmap also identifies a resourceavailability, wherein a qualification of a resource is analyzed in priorto analyzing an availability of a resource, and wherein unqualifiedresources are not analyzed for availability.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the bitmap is continuous in memory.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein multiple bits of the bitmap are evaluated simultaneously duringthe scanning of the bitmap.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theelement comprises a resource and wherein the counter-element comprises awork item and wherein less than five percent of the counter-elementsrepresented in the bitmap are included in the set of counter-elements.10. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions thatcause a computing system to execute a method, the instructionscomprising: instructions configured to determine that an element in acontact center has become available for assignment; instructionsconfigured to determine a search criteria associated with processingrequirements or capabilities of the element; instructions configured toscan a bitmap for the search criteria to identify counter-elements inthe contact center that are qualified to be assigned to the element; andinstructions configured to, based on the scanning, determine a set ofcounter-elements that are qualified to be assigned to the element. 11.The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprisinginstructions configured to determine a selected counter-element from theset of counter-elements and assign the element to the selectedcounter-element.
 12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, whereinthe element comprises a work item and wherein the counter-elementcomprises a resource.
 13. The computer readable medium of claim 12,wherein the bitmap is a resource bitmap that is associated with aresource pool and each bit in the resource bitmap corresponds to asingle resource in the resource pool.
 14. The computer readable mediumof claim 13, wherein a value of each bit in the resource bitmap isassigned either a 1 or 0 depending upon whether the resource isqualified to be assigned to the work item and wherein every resource inthe contact center is represented in the resource pool and resourcebitmap.
 15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the valueassigned to a bit in the resource bitmap depends upon attributecombinations of the associated resource and whether the resource has anattribute combination equal to an attribute combination of the workitem.
 16. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein multiplebits of the bitmap are evaluated simultaneously during the scanning ofthe bitmap.
 17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein theelement comprises a resource and wherein the counter-element comprises awork item.
 18. A work assignment mechanism, comprising: a workassignment engine configured determine that an element in a contactcenter has become available for assignment, determine a search criteriaassociated with processing requirements or capabilities of the element,scan a bitmap for the search criteria to identify counter-elements inthe contact center that are qualified to be assigned to the element,and, based on the scanning, determine a set of counter-elements that arequalified to be assigned to the element.
 19. The system of claim 18,wherein the work assignment engine is further configured to assign aselected counter-element from the set of counter-elements to theelement.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the element comprises awork item and wherein the counter-element comprises a resource, whereinthe bitmap is a resource bitmap that is associated with a resource pooland each bit in the resource bitmap corresponds to a single resource inthe resource pool, wherein a value of each bit in the resource bitmap isassigned either a 1 or 0 depending upon whether the resource isqualified to be assigned to the work item, wherein every resource in thecontact center is represented in the resource pool and resource bitmap,and wherein less than five percent of the counter-elements representedin the bitmap are included in the set of counter-elements.